limited edition and one-of-a-kind dioramas

The Suitors

I've done several versions of this theme, from outside and inside the window. This first one is based on one of my favorite places, Castle Acre Priory, in Norfolk, UK. Further down, some give a nod to Greece, Copenhagen, and New York City. The back wall is often a page from As You Like It.

multi-box dioramas

Because these are essentially assemblages of individual dioramas, they can grow a lot bigger.

Ascend

Runaways

Vault

The Stream of Time

Balance II

Blue Peter

Steam

Bower

These are so hard to photograph. A translucent back gives each piece a different look depending on the time of day or placement of lighting.

maps and ephemera

I love the look, feel, and history of old ephemera. Geography textbooks, illustrated children's books, these are some of my favorites.

Why Duck? Naturally, in a 1930s box of puzzles, that was the only one missing a piece, which stumped me for a while.

Distribution of Rain

Active Volcanoes

Winds 2106

Winds 2018 detail

Fresh Mussels

The Secret House

Blueprints

Swan

Eagle

Pelican

Duck

The League of Health and Beauty

Travelogues

These shadowboxes within book-shaped boxes include pages from The CONDUCT of LIFE, a collection of essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson, published in 1860. Emerson's chapters, and my Travelogues, are variously entitled Fate, Power, Wealth, Beauty, Culture, Behaviour, and Religion. The background panels are made of vintage postcards.

(Wood, paper, pvc, resin birds and books)

windows

Rachel's Window

This is a diorama I made for the Rachel Carson Homestead. The writer, scientist, and godmother of the environmental movement grew up just outside of Pittsburgh, and fans and followers make pilgrimages to see the house she grew up in. The first thing they want to see is the bedroom window Rachel looked out from, to get a glimpse of the view that helped shape her ideas about the natural world and man's effect upon it. That view has changed of course; a hillside of suburban houses, and no longer an orchard stretching down to the Allegheny River, but I've tried to imagine what it might have looked like to her.

I've made other window pieces with a similar skylight. A little toplight make these some of the best theaters, with a remarkable illusion of depth.

classics

Departure

True Love (open)

True Love (closed)

Levitate

Paper (closed)

Paper (open)

Penguins

I've wanted to use these birds for years, and in 2017 a penguin project for the National Aviary gave me a push.

Laboratory

When I was working at an invention company and learning CAD drawing, I wanted to see if I could design an Aviary entirely on computer (couldn't avoid starting, however, with my usual sketch on the back of an envelope). The inspiration for these is from 1930s bad science-fiction movie serials. A green glass skylight adds to the atmosphere.

Birds On a Wire

Birds On a Wire and Orioles at the Shore always have hand-painted landscape backgrounds. Sometimes simpler is better.

The Three Pillars

This piece had the longest gestation of any of my Aviaries. I keep boxes of interesting bits in my workshop, hoping that someday inspiration will come to me. These plaster columns and lintels are the remains of a large sculpture I made circa 1984, with design details swiped from the great temple at Karnak, in Egypt. The background is a hand-made print entitled The Garden of Eden, by my late mother-in-law, surrealist artist Janet Krieger.

Bounce

Orchard series

These were some of the very first Aviaries I made; a world viewed through a keyhole being an early theme. There have been others, but here are Pear Amour and Pomme d'Amour.